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Gannett Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

Is this meaningful? Or just another movement?

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of newspaper publisher Gannett(NYSE: GCI) sank as much as 10% in early trading after its third-quarter revenues came in below analyst expectations.

So what: While a 22% jump in broadcasting revenue helped stop a multiyear string of top-line declines, continued weakness in print advertising -- down 5.1% for the quarter -- has investors questioning the USA TODAY publisher's comeback. Naturally, poor print figures don't exactly bode well for The New York Times Co.(NYSE: NYT), McClatchy(NYSE: MNI), and The Washington Post Co.(NYSE: WPO), whose shares are all down slightly today.

Now what: I love investing in sectors where the secular trends are in my favor, and, quite obviously, the newspaper business just isn't one of those places. As the Internet continues to siphon away ad dollars, it's easy to see how Gannett's statistically tempting price ratios might actually turn out to be poisonous value-trap bait. Like Warren Buffett said at the 2009 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, "For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price. ... I do not see anything on the horizon that sees that erosion coming to an end."

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